Canada’s bitter weather has even penguins coming out of the cold

Update:
January, 02/2018 - 11:09

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King penguins generally don’t mind winter weather, as this file photo from a Japanese zoo attests, but zookeepers in bitterly cold Calgary, Canada had to draw a line in the snow and bring their 10 kings indoors. AFP Photo

MONTREAL — Just how cold is it in Canada? Ask thepenguins at the Calgary zoo: Even they have had to take shelter.

King penguins – one of five species at the zoo in western Alberta province – are certainly accustomed to chilly weather, more so than species like theHumboldt that prefer somewhat warmer climes, said zoo curator Malu Celli.

But with a cold snap pushing temperatures below minus 30oC on New Year’s Eve – and feeling more like minus 40 inthe wind – and with one five-month-old penguin chick still maturing, zooofficials decided to draw a line in the snow on Sunday, setting minus 25 as thebirds’ limit.

They brought the 10 kings into their heated enclosure, where they can stillbe viewed by humans brave enough to be out.

Across Canada, planned New Year’s Eve festivities in several cities – forhumans, that is – were moved indoors amid a particularly brutal cold snap.For nearly a week, most of Canada has been under an extreme cold alert.

At midday Monday, the country’s coldest temperature was registered inEureka, in northern Nunavut territory, at minus 40.5 degrees. The highest wasin Prince Rupert, in the western province of British Colombia, at minus 7.5degrees.